ASX Small Cap Lunch Wrap: Who’s creating their own utopia today?

Disney has unveiled new residential communities called ‘Storyliving’ and at first glance it sounds like a fun never-ending Disneyland/Marvel holiday for super fans.

There’ll be apartments, single family homes, a hotel, shopping, dining, entertainment, and social clubs – with everything run by Disney cast members.

The first community, Rancho Mirage, is planned to be built in California’s Coachella Valley, with other locations currently being explored.

Disney is selling it as a paradise… but what would happen if you ever tried to leave?

POV the year is 2063 and you’ve just tried to escape the safe and comfortable walls of STORYLIVING© by DISNEY pic.twitter.com/WkptA8t6lb

— ᴊᴏᴇ (@traddingtonbear) February 17, 2022

To Markets …

The ASX 200 is down 75.80 points or 0.90% at midday today to 7,230.70.

All eyes in Europe are on the rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia, which could have some big impacts on commodities.

“Financial markets took a turn for the worse after US warnings that there’s evidence on the ground that Russia is moving towards an imminent invasion of Ukraine,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter says.

“For now, the increased tensions haven’t pushed up the oil price, which is proving much more sensitive to better prospects for Iranian output.’

In the US, intensifying geopolitical tensions also weighed on stocks and bond yields yesterday, taking away major indexes gains for the week.

Moscow said it had pulled back some troops, which spurred a rally in markets earlier in the week. Western officials said Wednesday that Russia was actually continuing its military build-up.

“We’ve got to put more focus on what’s being done on the ground, rather than what’s being said,” said Paul Jackson, global head of asset allocation research at Invesco. “My presumption is that this will be sorted out diplomatically. If markets go down a lot more, then I would think it would be an opportunity to buy.”

He said he isn’t expecting a major change from Russia while its ally, China, hosts the Winter Olympics. The Games conclude this weekend so “we still have a little while to go before we can feel things have really dissipated on a permanent basis,” Jackson said.

“In the interim, it’s a propaganda game.”

But despite the volatility this week, some investors said that they expected inflation and monetary policy to stay centre stage in coming months.

“High and rising inflation has justly become the key preoccupation of investors. It is affecting consumer spending, business outlook, politics and, most importantly, the direction of monetary policy,” wrote JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists in a note to clients on Thursday.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for February 18 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

The biggest winner today was Golden Cross (ASX:GCR) which is out of suspension after completing a $1.5m cap raise and satisfying the ASX’s conditions of reinstatement – closely followed by Horseshoe Metals (ASX:HOR), also out of suspension after completing a $1.5m cap raise.

Engage:Bdr (ASX:EN1), Amani Gold (ASX:ANL) and YPB Group (ASX:YPB) were all up on no news.

And embattled junior Argonaut Resources (ASX:ARE) says Zambian Government authorities are investigating the purported cancellation of the Lumwana West exploration licence following in-person representations by the explorer.

In January, the Zambians unexpectedly did not renew an exploration licence over  ‘Lumwana West’, which includes the large Nyungu copper-cobalt deposit.

ARE believed there was corruption at play and lodged an appeal.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS